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Heather Bailey, municipalization director and Boulder's highest-paid employee, to resign in April

Bailey will depart after six years in the role

By Alex Burness

Staff Writer

Posted:
02/27/2018 03:00:33 PM MST

Updated:
02/27/2018 07:10:03 PM MST

Heather Bailey (City of Boulder)

Heather Bailey, director of Boulder's Energy Future office and the leader of the city's municipalization project, will resign from her role in April after six years with the city.

Bailey, who has been the highest-paid city employee over each of those six years, has accepted a position as chief of staff with Austin Energy in Texas, the city announced.

For Bailey, this will be a return to the industry side of energy, and to Texas. She previously worked in the utility industry as a regulator, executive and consultant. She has an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor's degree in marketing from Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas.

Bailey could not be reached immediately for comment on Tuesday, though she did issue a statement via a city news release.

"I want to thank my entire team for their tireless efforts to not only evaluate the feasibility of and move municipalization forward, but for their work on regulatory policy and legislative change, as well as searching for innovative emission reducing solutions," said Bailey.

"I also want to thank council for their support and confidence in our work. They never failed to ask the good questions and challenge us to do better," she said. "And, I want to thank the Boulder community. This is truly an amazing place gifted with lots of smart, caring people. I have loved the activism, both pro and con, and learned much from the experts (of which there are many) that weighed in on municipalization."

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The municipalization project involves Boulder attempting to fire Xcel Energy, the longtime electric provider to the city, then acquire Xcel's local assets and strike up a city-run electric utility. Boulder has a goal of 100 percent renewable electricity citywide by 2030.

There are 19 staff on the Energy Future team, city spokesman Patrick von Keyserling said.

Since Bailey was hired in Boulder, the city's municipalization project has experienced several notable ups and downs. It's faced multiple obstacles in court and has taken longer that city officials originally estimated.

After that point, Boulder will proceed with work designing its future municipal utility, and seek approval in court for condemnation of Xcel assets. Once the city knows how much it will cost to acquire those assets, voters will get a final "go/no-go" say on municipalization.

The voters have already supported the project three times, including in November, when an increase and extension of the municipalization tax passed by a 3.5-point margin.

The city has not named a successor for Bailey, whose resignation is effective April 27. Von Keyserling said "there will certainly be a project manager working on the Energy Future project" and that "the city will do an assessment as to what is the most qualified candidate or individual we'd need for that role."

It is possible, he added, that her replacement could come from in-house.

Bailey's salary was set at $250,000 — at the time, about $53,000 more than the salary for City Manager Jane Brautigam, Boulder's second highest-paid employee — plus a $31,000 annual housing stipend.

Her current salary is $294,734, von Keyserling said.

Brautigam commented, in the news release, on Bailey's upcoming departure.

"Boulder's efforts to create its own electric utility are moving forward thanks to the support and efforts of the community, city council, and extremely dedicated staff," she said.

"I'm excited about our future, even as I make the difficult announcement that we will have a transition in leadership later this spring. Heather has positioned the city well to continue exploring municipalization with a highly skilled team of staff experts and community advisors. In the coming months, the city will assess the skills needed for the next phase of municipalization and the best path forward to serve our community."

The announcement happens to arrive the same week that Bailey's counterpart in municipalization, Xcel - Colorado President David Eves, was promoted to a job with the title of "executive vice president, group president - Utilities," in which he will oversee Xcel operations in eight states.

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